Seidman's Online Insider

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                         Seidman's Online Insider
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      Weekly Summary of  Major Online Services and Internet Events
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Vol. 3 No. 2                                             January 14, 1996
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Copyright (C) 1996 Robert Seidman (robert@clark.net).  All rights
reserved.   May be reproduced in any medium for non-commercial purposes.


IN THIS ISSUE
=============
-Notes from the Editor
-Corrections
-Fun With Numbers 1996
-A New Version of MSN
-More Daily Doses
-YACA
-It Starts When You're Always Afraid
-How Secure Is It?
-Scout it Out
-Short Takes
-Stock Watch
-Disclaimer
-Subscription Info

Notes from the Editor
=====================

Thanks for all writing in with condolences for my ThinkPad and sharing
similar horror stories.  There was quite an outpouring, and it did cheer
me up quite a bit.  My hard drive is still dead and were currently
exploring data recovery options.   The comments ranged from a humorist
who wrote in to say I should have put a different spin on my story and used
a headline that said:

THINKPAD JUMPS RATHER THAN SPEND ANOTHER MINUTE ON THE INFORMATION
SUPERHIGHWAY

My brother Steve wrote in to say he was glad to see that I'd not lost any
of the finesse and dexterity I possessed in my teenage years.

Between the blizzard and my hardware problem, (and the NFL Championship
games) this week, I was pretty strapped for time.  The newsletter will be
pretty much its normal prolific length, but it will be more informational
than analytical.  Go easy on me, I'm running without a spell checker!  If
I use its where I meant it's, forgive me this one week...



Corrections
===========

Last week I wrote that Dr. Vinton Cerf, while championing the usage of
the Internet Protocol (IP), was known to wear a t-shirt that said,"IP
EVERYWHERE"

Dr. Cerf wrote to correct me, saying that the t-shirt came in a couple of
flavors, but the theme was "IP ON EVERYTHING".  We can't say if the
t-shirt was directly responsible for the success of the Internet, but
either way, Cerf seems to have gotten his wish.

Last Week, in a brief piece on Dan Fisher leaving LA Times' Timeslink
service to join a Microsoft effort headed up by Melinda French (a.k.a.
Mrs. Bill Gates),  I referred to French as the head of Microsoft's
consumer division. Microsoft's consumer division head is Patti
Stonesifer, who was recently named one of the top managers of 1995 by
Business Week.


Fun With Numbers
================

It could be that I got one of my New Year's wishes early.  You may
remember that I asked for good Internet demographics in '96.  A new study
released by the FIND/SVP Emerging Technologies Research Group concluded
that some 9.5 million Americans use the Internet made up of 8.4 adults
and 1.1 million users under the age of 18.


The American Internet User Survey was conducted between November and
December dialing 1,000 Internet users randomly.  The study was preceded
by focus groups and a series of online surveys and represents the fourth
phone survey by FIND/SVP in the last 18 months.  Over 155 questions were
asked during interviews that lasted more than 30 minutes each.
(Note: much of the data used here was taken directly from the study summary
 at: < http://etrg.findsvp.com/features/newinet.html > .)

According to Daniel Campbell, Director of the Emerging Technologies
Group, besides defining how many Internet users there are, since there
are so many components of the Internet, it is very important to define
who an Internet user is.


"Defining an Internet user is rather like defining a telephone user,"
Campbell said. "Is it a business user, someone who's dialing for
information or to place an order, or simply someone who wants to
communicate with a personal friend? The Internet has all these features,
and more."

More important than the "numbers game", says Campbell, is defining the
segments and having an in-depth understanding of the different uses
people have for the Internet.

The study defined "Internet User" as a user who used any one Internet
application besides e-mail, and included those accessing from commercial
online services, local and national Internet providers and corporate and
academic users.  Based on that, the universe broke down as
follows:


-8.4 million adults aged 18 and older use the Internet, including for
 work, personal, or academic purposes--also at all types of locations
 (work, academic, home, mobile).

-7.5 million total users access the Worldwide Web, including business and
 personal users who access it from work, academic, home, or mobile
locations.

-7.3 million home users, including adults and children, use the Internet
 (for any application) from home.

-5.8 million adults use the Internet for business activities, vs. 6.0
 million adults who use the Internet for personal activities. Sixty
 percent of adults use it for both.

-1.1 million children under 18 use the Internet from any location,
 including home or school. Approximately 700,000 of these children access
 the Internet from home.

-35% accessing the Internet are women, but men are twice as likely to
 access the Internet from home.


These numbers are substantially lower than numbers reported in the recent
CommerceNet/Nielsen study, but seem to track well with a study recently
done by O'Reilly and Associates.  While the numbers reported in the
FIND/SVP study may be lower than other studies, the growth of Internet
access has been explosive.
Over 51% surveyed reported they began using their first Internet
application in 1995.

The study reported that 4 million people began using the Web in 95.

"While web use is growing faster than anything else, email is still more
universally used," said Washington, D.C. based management consultant
Scott Finer, who worked with FIND/SVP on the study.

"21% of the sample does not report using the web yet...so it is not
ubiquitous," said Finer.

"Moreover, considerable business to business sales (involving fewer people
but larger dollar amounts than consumer scale sales) seems to take place via
ordinary email," he added.

Indeed, the study showed that more people used the Internet for
communication than for information.

-Email remains the number one Internet application used by more people
 and used most frequently. Indeed, a striking 41% of all Internet users
 reported they use email on a daily basis, while another 27% use it at
 least weekly.

-By comparison, some 24% of all Internet users reported they search for
 information on a daily basis, with an additional 44% who search weekly.

-Daily or weekly use of other specialized Internet applications such as
 Newsgroups, FTP or mail lists is limited to a  relatively much smaller
 number of users.

In what may be bad news for some of the media companies launching
services on the Web, the study found that " apart from younger
techthusiasts, for whom the Internet represents a kind of alternative
lifestyle, most users view the emerging Worldwide Web as a reference
resource rather than an integral part of their media lives.

The good news is that the study found that personal use of the Internet
was rising rapidly.  Two-thirds of all users tap into the Internet from
home, including 37% who do so exclusively from home.  Conversely, only
20% said they accessed exclusively from work.  61% percent of all users
said their personal use of the Internet is "very likely" to increase in
the coming year.  Of the users who currently use the Internet exclusively
for business purposes (11% of the overall population), 46% said their
personal use would increase in the coming year.

The study reported that most Web users had visited under 100 sites, with
60% of Web users reporting that they visit fewer than 10 sites on a
regular basis (once a month or more).  Only 23% had visited more than 100
sites.  35% had visited between 10-49 sites since first using the Web.

According to the study director, Thomas Miller, vice president of
FIND/SVP's emerging technology group, in a story by the San Jose Mercury
News, users could not remember poorly done web sites.

"Once they decided it was bad for some reason, they just clicked away and
went somewhere else," he said. "Everybody can tell you about bad
commercials or lousy programs on the TV, but the zapping process here is
built right into the interactivity. People don't have to put up with it.
They don't look at it at all if they don't want to."

Miller questioned the current use of the Web for advertising.

"We feel that the image of the Internet as an advertising and marketing
medium needs some adjustment," Miller said.

"This isn't mass media, which is the way the Nielsen folks were looking at
it, he said. "This is more a telephone Yellow Pages type of model. People
actively go out and look up what they want on the Internet. They don't just
absorb what you broadcast at them."

Time spent on the net is taking away from other forms of recreation.  The
study shows the average Internet user spends 6.6 hours per week on the
Net.  32% of the respondents said TV watching declined (only 4% reported
it had increased.)  25% said long distance phone calling had gone down
(11% reported increases), videos, magazines, newspapers and radio were
also hit, with a 10-15% decrease in each of those categories.

In news that surely made Steve Case smile, AOL was the most popular way
of accessing the Internet.

(Percent of All Internet Users Access Via Method Shown)

           Via an Online Service       46%
           America Online              30%
           Workplace Server            28%
           Academic Server             27%
           Internet Service Provider   25%
           Compuserve                  11%
           Prodigy                      9%
           Microsoft Network            2%



The survey also found that online shopping wasn't as likely to take off
as some other services, like online banking.


"Banking via online or Internet (or insurance, investments) may breakout
sooner than retail level shopping in general, since people will trust a
known financial brand before they will a small vendor," said Finer.

Of all the numbers I have seen, these and those from the O'Reilly and
Associates study seem to be the most realistic.


New Version of MSN
==================

This time it's not America Online with the postal blues, but upstart
Microsoft Network, who experienced about a week of problems delivering
e-mail in December.  The errors were in part blamed on upgrading the
backend systems for use with the new 1.2 version of MSN.   Some users
claim they still have not received mail sent to them in that period.

Version 1.2 became available this week.  While I've downloaded and installed
the new software, my own problems with my computer environment didn't allow
me to fully test the software.  On first blush, it does appear that some
of the systems problem areas, specifically their forums run faster now.
Furthermore, the software has been upgraded to allow connections to MSN
from other Internet providers, ISDN connections and LAN connections.
Microsoft bills the upgrade as one that adds better performance and
faster graphics.  The graphics do  appear to download quicker, but it
still seems slow compared to other services.

Also, the MSN Web site at < http://www.msn.com/ > is now allowing access
to the MSN forums on the stand alone MSN online service.  There is a
major caveat though, you must be an MSN subscriber to access from the
Web.  Currently, there are a couple of other restrictions as well: you
must use the Internet Explorer browser and you must use the Microsoft
Internet connection.  Microsoft claims they are working very hard to lift
those restrictions.

The future of a la carte access to MSN via the Web can't be far away.
Will AOL follow?

More Daily Doses
================

First there was the Cowles/SIMBA Media Daily < http://www.simbanet.com/ >
providing daily info on online/Internet (as well as other media)
happenings during the business week.  Since then, there have been many
additions.  c|net updates online and Internet happenings throughout the
day at < http://www.cnet.com >, and the offerings range from Suck
< http://www.suck.com/ > to the Netly News on Pathfinder
< http://www.pathfinder.com/netly/ > .  This week, Web Review joined the
fold at < http://gnn.com/wr/ >.  Web Review is produced by Songline
Studios, an affiliate of O'Reilly and Associates.  America Online has
also invested several million in Songline Studios.

My initial impression of this service: it's excellent.  It isn't as
comprehensive as some other sources, but the pieces are very well rounded
and informative.  If you'd read it you'd know about:

YACA!
=====

(Yet Another Censorship Attempt).  This time it is the Jewish civil
rights group, the Simon Wiesenthal Center < http://www.wiesenthal.com/ >
who have requested that large commercial online and Internet providers
drop access to information on hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan and the
White Aryan Nation.


"Internet providers have a First Amendment right and a moral obligation
not to provide these groups a platform for their destructive
propaganda," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Dean of the Wiesenthal Center in
the Web Review piece.

Those who read last week's newsletter know that I don't think you can
censor the Internet.  While I am personally opposed to the agenda of such
hate groups, censorship is definitely not the answer.


It Starts When You're Always Afraid
===================================

Milwaukee based Exec-PC which bills itself as the nations largest
bulletin board pulled all of its erotic material (files) from its
download area because they are fearful of a government crackdown.

"Since it is only 7 percent of our service and it could result in the 100
percent loss of our business, the risk is not worth it," said Exec-PC founder
Bob Mahoney in a story by the Associated Press.

The story quoted Mike Godwin, an attorney for the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, saying, "He has a perfect right to choose what to carry, but
it's a shame that he feels he has to exercise the right out of fear of
what government might do. That's what constitutional lawyers call a
chilling effect."


How Secure Is It?
=================

Last month, Asia Connect, an Internet service provider offering
connections to companies in Malaysia offered $20,000 to any "hackers" who
could break through their $100,000 security system.

Within minutes, Dinesh Nair an information tech consultant and
businessman Thian Seong Yee intercepted a private e-mail message intended
for Asia Connect president Raymond Cheng according to a story by AP.

"We had no malicious intent, but wanted to show the public how insecure their
service was,'' Nair said after a demonstration at the Star newspaper's
office.

"I was amused by it initially, but I guess this is the price that we have to
pay for doing business in the Internet," Cheng told the Star.


Scout it Out
============

The Scout Report is back and there is a newly formed "Net Scout Services"
project.  Net Scout Services currently offers the wonderful "Scout
Report", which is published by Susan Calcari in conjunction with
InterNIC; Gleason Sackman's great resource, "Net Happenings", and the
"Scout Toolkit".

The Scout Toolkit is "a service designed to collect, organize, and
annotate a subset of the most effective network information tools
available for accessing quality resources on the Internet. The Toolkit is
not meant to be a comprehensive listing of all network tools, rather a
select collection of tools organized by function.  Internet users can
investigate a sampling of subject catalogs, searchable indexes, and
annotated indexes and decide which tool best fits their needs. The best
ways to stay current on Internet news and resources are also provided."

Check it out on the Web at < http://rs.internic.net/scout/ >.


Dom's Domain
============

No, it's not a chat room on AOL, it's another viewpoint on the connected
world by Dominique Paul Noth.  Noth, who has a pretty diverse background
ranging from acting to theater critic to university professor and
journalist, offers  weekly commentary concentrating on newspapers and
magazine efforts in cyberspace.

Catch the December column plus a special extra and find out why Dom says
the Blizzard of '96 hurt print media's ego and that the online gains from
the blizzard are iffy.

Exclusively on the Web until Dom wises up and decides to distribute it
via e-mail.  Sorry Dom, I couldn't resist.  In the mean time point your
browsers to: < http:/www.arcfile.com/dom >.


Short Takes
===========

Okay, I'll admit it, with the exception of the FIND/SVP survey results,
this whole newsletter has been choc full o' short takes.  Sue me, the NFL
conference championships only come once a year.  Pittsburgh and Dallas in
the Super Bowl, a flashback to the 70's when life was good and I was
still a few years away from that first Timex-Sinclair 1000.   Speaking of
the superbowl, there's all kinds of superbowl info on the Web, but you
can start at the official NBC/Microsoft site at: < http://www.superbowl.com/>
--
SPEAKING OF THE Super Bowl, Microsoft isn't missing an opportunity to
distribute their Web browser on CD-ROM to all in attendance at Super Bowl
XXX in Tempe, Arizona.  Personally, after the recent snowball game at the
Meadowlands, I'm a little worried of what might happen if the game gets
as boring as most Super Bowls.  "Look Ethel, there's a little multi
colored frisbee on my seat!  I bet I can get it through the uprights!"
--
SPEAKING OF BROWSERS catch last Thursday's Wall Street Journal Personal
Technology column by Walter Mossberg for commentary on the infancy of the
Web Browser war at : < http://ptech.wsj.com >.  Walt, we hope you
finally got your car dug out.
--
ENCRYPT AWAY?  Federal prosecution have dropped their case against Phil
Zimmerman, who developed the Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) software for
encrypting electronic communications.  "I've had worse days than today,"
Zimmerman joked. Still unresolved is the issue of government control of
encryption technology and whether distributing controlled material via
the Internet constitutes an export.


Stock Watch
===========


                                This   %Change    52      52
                                Week's  Vs Last   Week    Week
Company                 Ticker  Close   Week      High    Low
-------                 ------  ------  ------  ------- -------
@Net Index              IIX     $210.91   ?     $259.85 $185.76
America Online          AMER    $36.75  -3.3%   $46.25  $12.31
Apple                   AAPL    $33.88  -1.1%   $50.94  $31.38
AT&T                    T       $65.63  -1.9%   $68.88  $47.75
Bolt,Beranek & Newman   BBN     $34.88  -6.7%   $48.88  $14.75
CMG Information Svcs.   CMGI    $79.00    ?     $100.50 $11.00
FTP Software            FTPS    $11.56  -6.1%   $40.63  $11.13
General Elec.           GE      $70.25  -3.6%   $74.38  $49.88
H&R Block               HRB     $36.88  -9.5%   $48.88  $33.38
IBM                     IBM     $86.38  -2.5%   $114.63 $70.25
MCI                     MCIC    $26.75  +2.4%   $27.50  $17.38
Mecklermedia Corp.      MECK    $11.50  -8.0%   $24.38  $2.63
Microsoft               MSFT    $85.75  -0.7%   $109.25 $58.00
Netcom                  NETC    $34.50  -4.2%   $91.50  $19.00
NetManage               NETM    $10.88  -31.8%  $34.00  $10.88
Netscape Comm. Corp     NSCP    $137.25 -1.4%   $174.00 $45.75
News Corp.              NWS     $21.63  +0.6%   $25.13  $14.75
Oracle Corp.            ORCL    $42.63  -0.6%   $48.75  $26.66
Performance Syst. Intl  PSIX    $16.50  -24.1%  $29.00  $12.00
Sears                   S       $43.13  +2.7%   $43.63  $21.75
Spyglass Inc.           SPYG    $43.50  -3.3%   $61.00  $13.25
Sun Microsystems        SUNW    $40.13  -0.9%   $51.75  $14.94
UUNET Technologies      UUNT    $48.00  -14.3%  $98.75  $21.75


Disclaimer
==========
I began writing this newsletter in September 1994, at the time I
was working for a technology company that is now owned by MCI.
In March, I began working for International Business Machines
Corporation.   As  of July, my management has agreed to allow me
to do some work on the newsletter during business hours (probably
about 6-8 hours a week).  I speak for myself and not for IBM.


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